Goodnight City review: Bleak, disturbing psycholgical thriller lacking catharsis

Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s Goodnight City begins as psychiatrist Abheri Chatterjee (Rituparna Sengupta) asks people to help patients in distress on a television program. After she returns home and dines with her police commissioner husband (Saswata Chatterjee), she gets a call from a stranger, who expresses his wish to commit suicide in a few hours.

He eventually discloses his name as Abhimanyu Mitra (Ritwick Chakraborty) and claims to have raped and committed two murders in the past few hours. This prompts Abheri’s husband to put his force to investigate the matter and track Abhimanyu down. Now, conflict sets in between the married couple as Abheri considers Abhimanyu to be a person suffering from a psychological disorder, while her husband is convinced that he is nothing but a criminal.

Abhimanyu’s calls over the night eventually reveal his traumatic childhood, adolescence and youth. Is he really suffering from a pshchological dysfunction or is he a criminal? The plot also maintains a suspense on how the story will end. Will Abhimanyu commit suicide or will he be arrested?

The queer setting of Abhimanyu’s apartment with neon lights and weird decor, his abnormal behaviour with the delivery boy, the voices in his head and the apparent murder and rape committed by him in the beginning, set a very surreal setting.

Abhimanyu’s past is revealed in flashbacks and that is where the plot loses its intensity. The detailed description of each and every event, focus on Abhimanyu’s tyrannical father (Sudip Mukherjee), submissive and affectionate mother, his uncle and most importantly, his cousin, Babin (Sourav Das), are no doubt crucial to give an idea of Abhimanyu's journey so far.

However, it seems Kamleshwar Mukherjee has spent more time on the past events than on portraying Abhimanyu’s present state of mind.

The director, perhaps, could have opted for a smarter approach that only provides a gist of the events responsible for making Abhimanyu what he is today. While the present course of the plot intrigues the audience to wait for the climax, the parallel narrative of the past is a bore.

The tale of Goodnight City, however, is much more than a mere psychological thriller. The plot attempts to bring out the deep and manifold consequences of tyranny and exploitation on several levels. The protagonist is extorted by his family memebers, in college and even in romantic relationships. Actors Sudip Mukherjee and Riwtick Chakraborty both deserve credits for magnifying the emotional pangs and helplessness of the protagonist without any melodramatic thrust.

Though most of the characters play symbolic parts in Abhimanyu’s life, the character of his uncle and the episode with him seems to be redundant as it doesn’t have a proper closure. Also, delusion and reality overlap to such an extent that by the time film ends, the audience is left confused as what and who belonged to reality.

Debojyoti Mishra’s urban background score including heavy electric guitars and drums too gel well with the plot.

Ritwick Chakraborty’s dramatic performance creates the eerie ambience and presents a fine overlap between delusion and reality. His performance never suffers and keeps the audience glued to their seats, despite the cinematic drawbacks. He essays an array of shades in his character; he is queer, vulnerable, shrewd and completely insane when he just needs to be.

Saswata Chattejee suits well as the responsible policeman who is also vulnerable at his wife’s entreats. Rituparna Sengupta, more or less, delivers a decent performance, while Sourav Das appears amateur.

Payal Sarkar and Arunima Ghosh’s performances definitely lift the story when it seems exhausting.

Harendra Singh’s camerawork adds to the phantasmagorical look of the film but also has a few flawed frames here and there.

Goodnight City is for those who can spare time or are Riwtick Chakraborty fans.

Though the film attempts to touch upon a lot of issues, the director’s failure at delivering a compact plot disappoints a great deal.

Besides, Goodnight City intends to talk about love, relationships among siblings, norms of politics but fails to churn the various emotions and ends up telling a bleak and disturbing story without a catharsis.